TwinsCentric: Minor League Starting Pitcher of April

Maybe it’s the weather, but t’s hard to believe that we are now in May. One month of the season is already complete. That means that it is time to determine our Hitter and Pitchers of the month. If you’ve been following the Twins Minor League Reports each day of the season, you’ve noticed that there are seemingly great starts each night, often two or three. And hey, pitching is what wins games, right? So let’s start with the starting pitchers. We'll get the the top relievers and hitters in the next day or two.

As we have done in past years, aside from just picking the top pitcher, we’ll count down a top five performers for the month. It’s always nice when we have a few extra strong performers. This month, it was difficult to rank the pitchers. There were a lot of strong, solid performers, so feel free to discuss the rankings and even comment your own rankings or thoughts.

With that, let's jump to the starting pitchers. Here are the Top 5 Starting Pitchers for the month of April:

On Thursday night, Kris Johnson will make his Minnesota Twins debut. In 2013, he made his big league debut and pitched in four games for the Pittsburgh Pirates including one start. He came to the Twins this offseason in a trade with the Pirates in exchange for reliever Duke Welker (remember the Duke Welker-Twins era?). His 2.39 ERA for Louisville last year led the International League, and he is off to a strong start in 2014. In his first start, he threw five shutout innings, allowing just two hits. In his most recent start (last Thursday), he gave up only an unearned run in six innings. The left-hander sits 91-92 with his fastball and has a good three-pitch mix.

Following last season, Lee was my pick for the pitcher to take a big step forward as a prospect in 2014. The 23-year-old put together a solid first month of the season. If nothing else, he was very consistent. He gave up two earned runs in all five of his starts. In this games, he went 5.2 innings, then six, six, six and seven innings. The lefty was the Twins 10th round pick in 2010 out of junior college. In 2012 at Elizabethton, he posted a 2.68 ERA. In 2013 in Cedar Rapids, he posted a 2.95 ERA. So, Mr. Consistent’s 2.93 ERA in April shouldn’t be too surprising.

The 6-10 Slegers was the Twins 5th round pick just last year out of the University of Indiana where he was the 2013 Big Ten Pitcher of the Year. After a very solid performance in Elizabethton last summer, Slegers was the Kernels’ Opening Day starter. Since signing, Slegers has been able to add a little bit of velocity. He’s got pitches, and he’s got really good control. He doesn’t walk batters, but he was able to get strikeouts as well. If he can continue this for another month, he will likely move up to the Miracle.

Maybe you’ve heard or read a lot about Alex Meyer in the last couple of weeks. The 24-year-old Meyer came to the Twins for Denard Span. He’s tall. He sits 95-96 and hits 99 and even 100. He has a devastating slider. And now he learned a new changeup grip from Yohan Pino and Deolis Guerra. He’s got Ace upside. He has been really good in four of his five starts. He had a clunker in his third start, but in his last two starts, he has been absolutely dominant. He’s got things to work on, but he can be very special.

I asked Dan Rohlfing, the talented catcher who caught those last two starts about Meyer, and he’s what he had to say. “Alex is electric! There’s definitely not many guys who can do what he does with a baseball. It’s awesome to watch him go from a thrower to a pitcher. He is really starting to figure a lot of things out. By him learning (and trusting) to pitch inside and developing a quality change up makes him that much more dangerous. We all know his curveball is filthy, and it’s becoming much more consistent as well. By him being a three-pitch pitcher now, who knows how to mix it up, makes it extremely unfair for hitters. His last two outings were dominant, to say the least.”

Logan Darnell was the team’s 6th round pick in the 2010 draft out of the University of Kentucky where he was a teammate of Alex Meyer. He pitched at three levels in 2011 (Beloit, Ft. Myers and New Britain). He spent all of 2012, and the first two-thirds of the 2013 with the Rock Cats. He ended last season with 12 starts in Rochester. Following the season, he was added to the 40-man roster, and this spring he reported for his first major league camp. He was one of the first cuts, but he was able to stretch out and be ready for the start of the season. In his first start, he worked four innings and gave up only an unearned run. He’s given up just four earned runs over 17.1 innings in his other three starts. He has been consistent, and he’s started getting strikeouts for the first time in his career.

Last June, following his promotion to AAA, he talked to Twins Daily about what he throws, what he’s learned, pitching in the Arizona Fall League and much more.

There were a lot of very good starting pitching performances in April. It was difficult to rank the five above, and here are a few more starters who were strongly considered:

We’ll be back tomorrow to discuss the Relief Pitcher and Hitter of the Month. Please feel free to comment and ask questions.

In the next 24 hours or so, Twins Daily will post it's Top Relievers and Hitters for April. However, there is a lot going on at Twins Daily, including:

SD Buhr writes about Zack Larson and Tanner Vavra of the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Larson is probably the team's top hitting prospect. Vavra, son of the Twins 3B coach, has one of the top batting averages in the Midwest League.

Minnetonka native, former Gopher and current New Britain Rock Cats starting shortstop AJ Pettersen wrote a new article called The Greatest Gift.

Speaking of Pettersen, he joined Seth and Jeremy on this week's Twins Hangouts podcast and talked about life in the minor leagues, his promotion from Ft. Myers to New Britain and a little about Alex Meyer.

Twins Daily's Parker Hageman along with friend Dan Anderson have started a new podcast, the New Juice Podcast. Give it a chance too.

How much longer will Alex Meyer and Twins fans have to wait for Alex Meyer to get called up?

Lydia Ko's return home for the New Zealand Women's Open will give the former world No. 1 a chance to sustain her recent improvement in form and perhaps collect her first LPGA title in more than a year.